The National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations commenced on 31 October 2022 and a total of 753 964 full-time and 167 915 part-time candidates are registered to write these examinations.
At a Committee meeting on the readiness for the 2022 Matric examinations, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) said this would be the largest cohort of candidates to date.
The Department also mentioned that this group of learners has been the most negatively affected by learning deficiencies and disruptions to the schooling programme due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The current matric learners were in Grade 10 when the pandemic began and experienced many disruptions in their senior years of high school due to Covid-19. This meant that the department had to double its efforts in preparation for the final exams.
The DBE Director of Curriculum Implementation and Monitoring, Cheryl Weston said that due to the disruptions caused by Covid-19 for the last two years, these matric learners have been subjected to a trimmed curriculum and an amended assessment programme in Grade 10 and 11.
Thus, the department deemed it necessary to enhance of the support programme of the Class of 2022 in order to address the substantial disadvantage suffered by the class.
However, this year there were no interruptions to the schooling calendar due to Covid-19 as seen in previous years. The Deputy Minister of the DBE, Reginah Mhaule said that though there were small challenges, they weren’t significant enough to stop the schooling programme.
A total of 6 307 public schools and 578 independent centres will act as exam centres until 7 December 2022, when the examination period will end.
Panels of subject experts appointed and managed by the DBE set 162 question papers for this exam period and the department has audited all sites where question papers are printed, packed and sorted to prevent any irregularities.
The department says that through all the disruptive environmental changes, it has managed to uphold the credibility of the exams and that it will continue to improve regardless of the challenges.
